Kukla's Korner Hockey

Pierre McGuire, NBC’s “Inside the Glass” hockey reporter, declined Tuesday to go beyond what he shared with his TV audience about the Game 4 argument between coaches John Tortorella of the Rangers and Peter DeBoer of the Devils - which wasn’t much.

“They weren’t having an amiable conversation about what they were going to do for dinner in the summer,” he said. “It was two guys venting, but never once did they challenge one another to a fight or say anything like, ‘I’ll get you down the road.’ Nothing ever that I thought was truly inappropriate.”

McGuire was uniquely qualified to convey the details, since he was positioned directly between the coaches. (Glenn Healy, his Canadian counterpart at CBC, was off to the side.)

But having muted the sound on his microphone to prevent profanities from being heard on national TV, he also decided that the language used in the exchange made it unsuitable for repeating.

There’s no doubt the Douche Canoe can be, well, a douche. But I have to say, he handled that whole episode last night like a true professional. The way he instantly muted the sound was pretty impressive. And he’s continued to handle the whole thing professionally today.

I would have found it beneficial to know where they played their amateur hockey in real time. It may have given the viewers an indication to the basis of their respective arguments. It took me 2 extra minutes to look up their careers. By that time the game was on again.

Posted by
Mike
from St. Paul on 05/23/12 at 11:43 AM ET

Note to self: sent thank you cards to Tortorella and DeBoer for silencing the splashing douche coming out of McGuire.